Thriving Affinity
by Azeleas
Summary: Sabo, Koala, and a beginning that has yet to see an end.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: One Piece belongs to Eichiiro Oda.

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><p>From the very beginning, their relationship is a sum of false starts and things unsaid.<p>

Sabo was already two years in the Revolution Army before Koala became an official member. They never got along ever since Koala joined the organization, in spite of the fact that they were, in fact, the youngest.

Both were too involved in doing what they were told to do by their superiors, and spending their leisure time drowning in bitterness and hatred.

One day, after a bad run-on sentence from Sabo, the youngest revolutionaries jumped at each other's throats, knocking each other on the head by their kicking feats and flailing fists.

The older and more experienced members of the organization were rather entertained by their scrimmage. They were bellowing, chanting and laughing while watching the ball of kicking and screaming limbs roll around in front of them.

It wasn't until Dragon was wandering around the corner that Hack finally sprang into action, leaping to his feat and making a show of shouting, obviously trying to put an end to this nonsense.

Koala was something comparable to a rabid animal, but Sabo was in no way defenseless. Hack knew for a fact that noblemen were taught from an early age not to hit women – or girls, as the case was. Either Sabo hadn't learned his lesson yet, or he just didn't care, because Sabo wasn't pulling any punches. Probably the latter, Hack decided to himself.

In any case, the moment Dragon had shouted, Hack was bolting for the dirty, tangled mass of children. He reached them just in time to catch Koala's swinging fist before it could land another blow, pulling the girl bodily off her opponent by the back of her shirt.

She squealed in protest, kicking in the air, struggling to get back into the fight. Only a strong arm on Sabo's shoulder kept him from launching himself at Koala.

Both children looked wild. They were covered in dirt and grass, wide-eyed and feral and breathing hard. They didn't dare speak, hence they remained glaring at each other as the Revolutionary demanded what they'd been on about, fighting like that. Blood was trickling down Koala's chin from a split lip while the entire lower half of Sabo's face was covered in the sticky, red stuff which was flowing freely from his nose. One of the girl's eyes was turning black, and there was a large bruise spreading across the left side of the boy's face, worsening the mark that adorned his face. Neither child seemed to care, or even to notice.

As a result of an assigned mission they were forced to carry out together, both Sabo and Koala became aware of how much they genuinely had in common, despite the fact that there were some clear differences between the two of them. She did not respect him for more than who he was, and he did not place her on a pedestal even though her many talents were occasionally blinding.

They started to train together subsequently, defining the spaces between by what they did not say.

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><p>AN: This story is going to be an episodic-type fiction. Thanks for reading.<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: One Piece belongs to Eichiiro Oda.

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><p>She found him nearly an hour after beginning her search. He'd disappeared just as soon as everyone had offered their condolences – she with the rest of the revolutionaries, standing a polite distance, taking his hand in gentle fingers without so much as a squeeze to convey her sympathies before being swept away along the line – and she hadn't seen him since.<p>

She had searched through the base, poking into every barracks room– unbeknownst to the others_,_ beneath every piece of furniture, combing the grounds thoroughly until she was sure she'd trampled over every last inch of the Revolutionary's base. Yet, she still hadn't found him.

It wasn't until, by some stroke of luck, she'd practically been clocked in the head with a clay tile that she had realized where he was hiding. It had taken her a few moments to find a place where the roof hung low enough for her to reach, and even then the feet ended with an undignified scrabble to keep her hold. Despite that, once she had made it up, it took her half a second to locate Sabo.

He'd grown the last few years, finally overtaking her in height. He was skinny and awkward, but somehow he'd managed to fold his long frame up into the tiniest place imaginable. His knees were curled up against his chest, arms wrapped firmly around them, head bowed against his arms, blonde hair obscuring what little bit of his face was visible.

Koala sat down beside him, curling up close against his shoulder, but keeping her arms to herself. He didn't need coddling, and she wouldn't have offered it anyway. He needed someone to lean on nonetheless.

"Have you been up here the whole time?" she asked quietly, breaking the silence.

He nodded into his arms, then pulled his head to look up to her, smiling ruefully. "Why do you look so sad, Koala?" he asked. "Your parents didn't die."

Her mother had been dead for a while by then, but the comment still stung. She never knew her father, never heard her mother mention a word of his identity.

"Maybe I'll shave my head," he continued, reaching up to twirl a strand of golden hair between his fingers. "It's getting too long anyways."

She'd cut her hair the night she found out about Fisher Tiger's death through Hack, in a fit of emotional rage directed at her nonexistent mother and residents from her home island, but with herself as the only victim.

"My brothers used to cut it for me when it got too long, though." he went on. His voice was so even and congenial that Koala felt her own breath hitching.

He heard her gasp, or felt it in the way her shoulder moved against his. He unfolded with another one of those silly, lackadaisical smiles, and she wanted to punch him.

He could tell, apparently, because his brows drew down, but the smile didn't dissipate. "What's wrong?" he asked, nudging her playfully with his shoulder. "Come on."

"What's wrong?" she demanded in a hard voice. "What's wrong?! Sabo, your parents died!" He did frown then, and he turned away from her. "Your family–"

"That's where you're mistaken." he interrupted quietly, staring in the opposite direction. "Ace and Luffy are my only family. Losing my good-for-nothing parents only made me realize that I could lose my brothers at any moment without being able to meet them again." He hunched in on himself and went on, "I don't know what I'll do if that were to happen."

Koala didn't know what to do or say, at first. Sabo was actually telling her something about his family, his brothers. "I'm sure they'll be fine, especially if they're your brothers." she said, her voice low, reaching out to pull him against her.

Something coursed through him that felt like a shiver, then both his arms came up to clutch at the one she had wrapped around his shoulders.

She smiled into his hair and said, "You have to be strong for your brothers. No matter what happens, you should be strong for them until the day you see them again." and he broke. He turned in her arms, wrapping himself around her, pressing his face into the soft skin of her neck. He made no noise or movement, but she could feel the hot tears running down her neck.

That would be the first time she saw him cry. Back then she thought it would be the last and only time she would ever see him cry.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: One Piece belongs to Eichiiro Oda.

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><p>"This was a bad idea..." Koala groaned, arms clamped tightly around her stomach as she sat, huddled in on herself. Sabo, laying on his side a few feet away, and shivering like it was the middle of winter, gave a grunt that couldn't have been anything but agreement. "Terrible," the girl continued. "Worse than kissing."<p>

They were lodging in the middle of an enormous cavern which was warmly lit by an unknown source. _"It's our own secret hideaway,"_ he grinned, sharing his treasure with her._ "We can do anything here — study, train, whatever!"_ She recalled the details how he told her about finding this place before she joined the Revolutionary Army. She felt honored, to say the least, that Sabo wanted to share this special place with her.

"I still maintain we were doing that wrong," Sabo mumbled, rolling onto his back with a pained grimace.

"You keep saying that," she interjected scathingly, "but you don't say how."

"I dunno," Sabo continued to mumble. "There was something with... tongues, and hugging each other real tight. We didn't do that."

He had the grace to blush when Koala raised an eyebrow at him.

"What?" he demanded, sitting up on his elbows to glare back at her. "Look, you asked. I saw tongues, and I saw hugging, and all we did was put our lips together."

Koala made a face. "That was unpleasant enough. The last thing I want is your tongue in my mouth."

Sabo laughed, and replied, "Wait until I tell you where babies come from," before groaning again, because laughing had hurt.

"You don't know where babies come from," Koala stated disbelievingly, staring at him with wide, almost hopeful eyes. Much to her dismay, her mother never had an opportunity to tell her about it, so she was more than a little curious.

Sabo _did_ know, and he told her.

Again, she was staring at him, but not in the superior way she usually did when she knew she was right and he was as wrong as wrong could be. Finally, she said, "Ew."

"Suddenly tongue kissing doesn't seem so bad anymore, does it?" Sabo wheedled with a smile on his face.

Koala continued to stare, and then— so swiftly he thought he was imagining it — a broad, knowing smile broke out across her face. "You're such a liar," she said teasingly, still smiling at him. "You want to _kiss_ me! You want to _put your tongue in my mouth_!"

This time, the blush was brilliant. Koala remembered it for a long, long time, because that particular shade of red rarely crossed his face. She fell over laughing, but had to stop to moan and groan and curl into a tight ball as her stomach and head protested the abrupt movement.

When the laughter, nausea, and pain had subsided, and she could see straight again, Koala rolled over onto her other side to face him. Sabo was still on his elbows, frowning hard at her through his flushed cheeks, daring her to make fun of him. With that same, knowing smile in place, she squirmed over to him, pressing close against his side.

He tried to scoot away, but she reached up and wrapped an arm around his neck, and said, "All right."

The blush subsided with surprising speed, and he was grinning at her as if he had known this was the only possible outcome, had planned it all the while and had only been playing along to make her feel more comfortable. Then he leaned over her, put an arm around her shoulders, and pressed his open mouth to hers.

Both of them had to admit that this was better than the first time. It was warm, and pleasantly damp, and they were _so close_ to something they couldn't quite grasp yet — something that solidified as they reached for it, only to evaporate the instant their fingers closed around it.

Sabo made a small, appreciative sound, and Koala moaned in response.

Then she shoved him away bodily, flying to her feet to stagger a few yards away where she fell to her knees and threw up.

"That bad, huh?" Sabo asked, rubbing the back of his head somewhat awkwardly.

"It's the liquor, you idiot," she groaned, scrubbing the back of hand across her mouth. "Why aren't you puking?"

"You had more to drink, Koala," he replied. "A lot more. It's your first time drinking, after all."

"This was a _terrible_ idea." she muttered, echoing her earlier thoughts.

Sabo looked around before suggesting, "We could try making a baby."

Koala's response was to throw up again.

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><p>AN: Thank you for reading. Special thanks go to BatmanSwim2016 and Mirruu. :)<p> 


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